KNUST graduates over 11,000 students at its 3rd virtual congregation ceremony

The Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Kumasi, has held the 3rd Virtual Congregation ceremony to graduate undergraduate and postgraduate students who completed their respective programmes of study.

In all, Eleven Thousand and Seventy-Three (11,073) students consisting of Nine Thousand, Six Hundred and Forty-Seven (9,647) undergraduates and One Thousand, Four Hundred and Twenty-Six (1,426) postgraduate students graduated. In terms of gender, the University graduated. Fifty-Nine (59) out of the postgraduate students received PhD degrees.

His Royal Majesty Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, the Chancellor, expressed his dissatisfaction with the country's growing unemployment crisis and challenged the graduates to be proactive, imaginative, explore new challenges, and start businesses that will create new jobs and help the economy.

The Asantehene urged companies that have yet to join the university to collaborate with it to provide internships and career assistance to students. He believes that this will effectively train students to produce the necessary labour to secure the industry's long-term viability.

He challenged the university to put research into practice to tackle major societal problems and raise public awareness about concerns, as well as to identify, assess, and embrace chances to better our communities and society.

Professor (Mrs) Rita Akosua Dickson, Vice-Chancellor, announced that KNUST will spend about GH17,000,000.00 to equip the Colleges with smart classrooms to facilitate synchronous and asynchronous teaching and learning, provide support for online assessment, and provide services for online learning on campus to ensure seamless teaching and learning amid COVID 19. As a result, she noted, a university-wide E-Learning Centre has been developed to act as a one-stop shop for the integration of all E-Learning tools and processes.

She mentioned that two essential systems, an App for obtaining transcripts online and an online system for post-retirement contract appointments for ease of service provision, were successfully built and launched during the year under review. This allows KNUST alumni and students all over the world to request transcripts to be sent to their selected destinations without having to visit campus.

Professor (Mrs.) Dickson mentioned that KNUST, in collaboration with the International Vaccine Institute (IVI), has started a vaccine trial for Typhoid fever in Agogo, in the Asante Akim North Municipal District of the Ashanti Region, as well as a State-of-the-Art Trial Centre at Agogo Presbyterian Hospital.

In addition, the Department of Crop and Soil Sciences, in partnership with the College of Engineering's Department of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering, created a Solar Biomass Hybrid Dryer that uses agro leftovers, wood scraps, and solar radiation to complete the drying process.

'This enables grain drying even at night and on rainy or wet days,' she explained. The Department of Crop and Soil Sciences has proven the effectiveness of Zerofly®Hermetic storage bags, a unique technology that protects maize against insects and pests, as part of its mission to affect society. 'With this new technology, mycotoxin (aflatoxin and fumonisin) levels are kept within the Ghana Standards Authority's approved threshold, ensuring food safety and security,' she continued.

In terms of grants, the Vice-Chancellor mentioned that Prof. Ellis Owusu-Dabo won $1,404,066.32 for the project titled “Pediatric Phase II age-de-escalation dose-finding study of Vaccine against invasive non-typhoidal infections in Sub-Saharan Africa”. Also, Prof. Fred Stephen Sarfo won $938,851.00 to work on Ghana-SPARCO: Ghana Sickle cell Pan -African Research Consortium and Dr. Richard Opoku, Department of Mechanical Engineering, won $182,179.23 to work on ‘Assessing and Commissioning of 150 Solar Powered Irrigation Systems (SPIS) in Ghana’.

On awards, the Vice-Chancellor announced that Dr. Ebenezer Owusu-Addo of the Bureau of Integrated Rural Development, KNUST, has won the 2020 Pittu Laungani Best Paper Prize from the International Journal of Health Promotion and Education. Also, Dr. Michael Frimpong, a Molecular Immunologist and a lecturer at the Department of Molecular Medicine, School of Medicine and Dentistry at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) has been named among the Ten (10) grantees of the 2020 African Postdoctoral Training Initiative (APTI).

Likewise, Professor Peter Donkor, a former Pro-Vice-Chancellor has been inducted into office as the 31st President of the West African College of Surgeons (WACS). Similarly, Professor Marian Asantewah Nkansah of the Department of Chemistry has been named among five winners of the 2021 Organization for Women in Science for the Developing World (OWSD)-Elsevier Foundation Award for Women Scientists in the Developing World.

Equally, Professor Divine Kwaku Ahadzie of the Centre for Settlement Studies of the KNUST has won the 2020 ‘Driving the impact agenda ‘category of the Real Impact Award and Dr. Augustina Angelina Sylverken, has been adjudged one of the Humanitarian Awards Global 12 Frontline COVID-19 Heroine in Ghana.